Even if you wouldn't suspect it at first glance: making really good preserves has a great deal to do with alchemy and requires a special dedication. Above all, the ratio of fruit to sugar is crucial, with sugar playing the subordinate role.
Too much sugar often masks inferior fruit and levels out the flavor, while the true star of the preserve is clearly the fruit, which must therefore be of selected quality. "Plus de fruit – moins de sucre" (More fruit – less sugar) is consequently also the motto of „La Trinquelinette“ and adorns every one of their labels.
"La Trinquelinette" is a small preserve manufactory based in Trinquelin, a tiny village in Burgundy, with whom we have been working together since last autumn.
The small company was founded in 1978 by Bernard Berilley, a 68-year-old who initially worked as a vegetable farmer, but then discovered his passion for good preserves and started a small production in his birthplace: in 1982, total production amounted to 2,000 jars, today it is 200,000 per year.
By then, however, it had been a long way: to achieve the best possible quality, Bernard had to experiment for a long time – the first attempts were still of very fluctuating quality. But he did not let himself be dissuaded from his vision and kept going until the result met his standards. Bernard carefully selects the fruit for his preserves, because they are the basis of the final product. They must be neither too ripe nor too sour. And the cooking process must also follow certain rules: at "La Trinquelinette", this means that the fruit (in a ratio of 55% fruit to 45% sugar, possibly with a little pectin) is briefly brought to a boil in small copper kettles with a capacity of only 72 kilos and then cooked for a maximum of 5 minutes. In this way, the preserve achieves a minimal sugar concentration, while the fruit can retain its full aroma and, above all, its very special character traits. The result: all preserves from "La Trinquelinette" contain more fruit than sugar, which gives them their special taste.
Currently, the range includes 20 - 25 predominantly single-variety flavors, because as may now have become clear, Bernard is a passionate fruit gourmet with a preference for preserving the unadulterated original aroma of every single variety.
By the way, the citrus fruits are still peeled by hand and one third of the peel is left on the fruit. This is how all the house's citrus preserves get a very special bitter-sweet taste.
Gradually, the quality of "La Trinquelinette" spread by word of mouth and so the preserve is now exported as far as the USA and Japan. But "despite" the great success, Bernard insists on not turning his small company into a large industrial machine. His greatest focus remains and continues to be the first-class quality of the fruit and its careful processing.
What we all particularly appreciate here at Maître Philippe is that the preserves really taste like the fresh fruit and even reproduce its consistency: the wonderful green rhubarb preserve awaits with the typical longitudinal fibers, without tasting stringy, the pear impresses with pieces that have retained their typical pear-like crispiness, blackberry and blackcurrant, this fruity black gold, captivates with a fine grain that reminds one of the original fruit and brings back childhood summers with smeared red mouths ...
So far, you have already had the opportunity to try the four varieties pear, bitter orange, rhubarb and the classic apricot, with which we dared the first test run. And as it seems, we have also hit your taste with it, because the first delivery is already sold out!
And so we are happy to introduce you to the following new varieties from today – in addition to the already known ones: cherry, red yellow peach, blackcurrant, wild blackberry, mirabelle and blood orange.
So then: Have fun trying them!
Directly to "La Trinquelinette" at Maître Philippe et filles
